Summer 2021      Volume 49, Number 3

Check This Out: Panspiration
By Marie Ann Donovan and Mary Yockey

Document: Column

Introductory Paragraph:  You probably were among the many who, late March 2020, sought clarity in a dictionary to understand the full meaning of the word pandemic. As you read through its etymology, you learned its Latin and Greek roots—pan meaning all and demos meaning people. Perhaps, feeling as you were about a (then) seemingly uncontrollable virus, you also researched pandemonium (“all demons”). You no doubt felt better having words to sum up your complicated feelings about complicated experiences.  In our recent work with school librarians, media specialists, and other educators, we have been seeing firsthand how they have dealt with the world being turned upside down. The main lesson they have taught us is simple yet poignant: A pandemic will not turn into personal pandemonium if you view it as an opportunity to change and grow—to channel your panspiration. Adopting this attitude does not suggest you will not at times feel scared, worn out, frustrated, or unsure. Rather, it suggests that despite the stress, you persist to prevail. There is precedent for such an approach. As a survivor of the 1918 pandemic explained years ago to one of us (Marie) during an interview, “Life wasn’t the same afterward. It got better, a little bit at a time. Everyone did more together with people they didn’t know. We made it through.”

DOI:    https://doi.org/10.33600/IRCJ.49.3.2021.71

Page Numbers:   71-77